RIO DE JANEIRO Australia became the first Olympic champions in women’s rugby sevens when they ran out convincing 24-17 winners over trans-Tasman neighbours New Zealand in the gold medal final at the Deodoro Stadium in Rio on Monday. Rugby sevens was making its debut at the Rio games.
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McAlister said the end of the Olympic campaign would mean the squad could now spend some time enjoying the atmosphere in Rio.
“The Australian game wasn’t Canadian rugby at all, for us”.
The Scarlets player hasn’t played the 15-a-side game for Wales as yet but her sleek running style and eye for a gap won her one of the prized 12 slots in the otherwise all-English team.
Earlier on Monday, the US women’s rugby team defeated France 19-5 to finish fifth in the Olympic standings.
New Zealand, who beat Britain 25-7 in the semi-final, opened the scoring through barn-storming centre Kayla McAlister, sister of Toulouse-based former All Black Luke.
South Africa has been runner-up in the last four world series and contains some of the season-leading individual players, including prolific try-scorer Seabelo Senatla.
But what they did best, after being trampled by the world (and now Olympic) champion Aussies in the afternoon semifinal, was hit hard and hit often, until the Brits had lost their will.
Ryan, who took over as Fiji’s sevens coach in 2013, knows his team is expected to win and is trying just to ensure they’re peaking at the flawless time. The All Blacks have not only retained the Bledisloe Cup, they’ve also won two World Cups – beating Australia in the final previous year. Will Dean of Kelowna, B.C., Rob Gibson of Kingston, Ont., Pascal Lussier of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and Julien Bahain – who was born in France but competes for Canada – were fifth in the repechage and failed to qualify for the final.
“There were some defining calls that swung the game a little bit”, he said.
“We are just sorry we couldn’t bring home a medal”.
With a core team place in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series for 2016-17 also on the line, Japan paid the penalty for having a player sent to the sin bin and not playing with a sweeper.
“I know Jasmine is a role model now for many and I think we’ve just got to keep supporting that”, said Pugh. “You have got guys who are specialized in one area, guys that are specialized in another, and then we’ve got a couple of rugby heads in the middle, trying to pull it all together”.
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That was still within New Zealand’s comeback ability, but Woodman dropped the kickoff ball – “I didn’t brush (the yellow card) off as quickly as I wanted to” – giving over possession which Australia ultimately used to score from a Caslick tap-and-go, effectively sealing the gold medal at 24-5 with less than four minutes to go.
